


Accidental Love

by CassRed_64



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Despair, Desperation, Developing Relationship, Dib is Of Legal Age (Invader Zim), Dreams and Nightmares, Drunkenness, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff and Smut, Hospitalization, Loneliness, Love Confessions, Love/Hate, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Moving, Panic Attack, Self-Reflection, Slow Burn, ZaDr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-01-25 06:08:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21351487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CassRed_64/pseuds/CassRed_64
Summary: Zim finally has had enough of Dib and plans to create a mind-control serum to control Dib and all human life but accidentally creates a love serum and hi-jinks ensue.
Relationships: Dib & Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 69





	1. Zim’s Mission

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fic and I don't have a beta reader on hand. So, constructive criticism is fine, if there is anything that could improve this fic, don't hesitate to leave a comment at the end of this fic. Also, if I need to add more tags to this fic, please let me know. Thank you for looking at my fic :)

**Chapter 1: Zim’s Mission**

It was nightfall when Zim was working in the lab. The haul smelled of various chemicals and what could be described to the human noise as bleach. Zim was rambling to himself about the morning mission and how the stick pig Dib human ruined a perfectly smooth plan.

“Ugh, that Dib thinks he is so smart! With his stuck up fur top! And his stupid thick head! Argh! I’m gonna show that Dib human who has the brain cell!”

Zim works relentlessly mixing batches of chemicals. With an emission of smoke, the chemicals in the large flask cooled down. “It is done! My greatest invention yet! With this in mind control serum no one, not even the Dib could stop Zim!”

Later that night, the Membrane family was quietly watching TV with Gaz playing her video games. Dib started to talk to his dad, “Dad, the reason I’m tired is that I had to stop Zim from destroying the Earth.”

“Son, do you mean your green best friend that you always hang out with?” Professor Membrane questioned.

“Zim isn’t my best friend, dad, he is...”

“Your boyfriend?” Gaz interjects, “you still talk about him and doing your little alien investigations, as well as annoying me and the entire class about his appearance since we were kids!”

“Shut up, Gaz! The only reason I even talk about Zim is that he is a real threat to the earth and no one listens or takes me seriously...”

“Son, I didn’t know you felt like this?”

“I have felt like this for years dad...” Dib said feeling exhausted, tired, and a little bit of frustration.

“Son, why didn’t you tell me sooner!”

“I have been saying this to you for years, dad. I have been trying to tell you the truth about Zim and trying to prove to you that Zim is, in fact, an alien and that...”

“Son, if you wanted to date Zim, you didn’t need to ask for my approval. I’m glad that you have gotten so close, maybe this relationship could help you take your mind off aliens and other non-scientific things.”

Dib starting to grow angry, “dad, you missed the whole point! I hate Zim!” With his right hand, Dib slams his fist on the arm of the chair. “He wants to destroy the earth for his alien colony and wipe us out!”

Membrane moved off the couch and started heading to the stairs, “son, I’m sorry to cut this conversation short, but I remembered that I have an important meeting tomorrow first thing in the morning. We can talk more about this tomorrow okay? Good night you two and no staying up any later tonight, that includes you too Gaz.” With that Membrane climbed up the stairs and went to bed. Gaz also got up from the couch to head to bed, “bro, don’t let dad get you down,” Gaz wanted to say more but felt like it wouldn’t help, so she remained silent. Gaz then turned back to climb up the stairs and head to bed.

Dib was left all alone in the living room with his own emotions. Dib pondered to himself stating, “what did Gaz mean not to let their dad get to him?” Before he continued the rabbit hole of depressing thoughts, Dib remembered his dad’s lecture about going to bed early. He quickly made his way upstairs and to his bedroom, with the shutter sound of his bedroom door, Dib grabbed his pajamas and started to get ready to sleep when the sound from his computer let Dib know that there was a notice in activity coming from Zim’s base.

Dib begrudgingly made his way to his computer, Dib normally would be excited at the prospect of doing battle with Zim once again for the good of the earth. Although, today after talking with his dad, Dib felt deflated and wanted to rid himself of these emotions and go back to bed.

Dib typing in his password to his computer, the monitor flickers on and shows that it was Zim’s robot servant/guard dog was outside of Zim’s base. Dib was beside himself with annoyance seeing that the robot was only playing with the neighborhood cat for the 3rd time this week.

Gir knew that his master didn’t like him associating with the cat. “Hi, kitty!” Gir said with an enthusiastic grin on his face. “I’m gonna name you squishy.” Gir then presided to pet the cat, the cat knew Gir as a creature with cool feeling texture. The cat didn’t appreciated the name it was given, but knew that the creature wasn’t gonna harm it anytime soon and accepted the pets with some contentment.

Dib after watching the display of affection for about five minutes decided that Zim most likely wasn’t going to attack anytime soon, but to be on the safe side he programmed his computer to keep the camera on all night if Zim did go out. With the program and cameras set, Dib headed off to his bed and quickly fell to sleep.

It was around five o’clock when Zim was getting himself ready for today’s mission. Zim was just about to head out the door when Gir came running behind him, “what’ cha doing master?” Gir questioned, Zim didn’t have time to explain nor patience to give the little robot the details of his master plan. “Gir, I need you to keep an eye on the house while Zim is gone!” With that statement, Zim quickly took out a spare remote controller that Zim would always keep in case Gir would deviate from what Zim would need the robot to do.

With the flick of the switch, the TV was turned on to Gir’s favorite show. Gir before responded to his master, automatically turned around and saw the TV was on. With the speed of a cheetah, Gir fell headfirst onto the bottom of the couch. Gir then proceeded to lift himself up the couch and quickly shouted, “yes my master” and continued to stare at the TV. With that, Zim sped off to the Dib-beast house.

Zim was motionless when he arrived at Dib’s house. Zim eyed Dib’s house for the briefest of moments before taking out one of his tablets and quickly typed in a sequence of numbers and letters and the tablet let out a small pin sound. Zim look at the words that the tablet was giving him, it read, “No Movement Detected” and with that Zim gave a small melodious laugh before making his way to the doorway of the house.

Dib was wrestling in his sleep, dreaming about the usual capturing of Zim, dissecting him, and getting the validation and acceptance that he so rightly earned. Zim using his pak, extended the legs just enough to bring him to the top of the second floor of the house. With careful precision, Zim quickly removed his glove from his right hand and with his claw-like appendage and sliced through the window. Zim hated his skin to be exposed for too long due to the intense training that he and many other irkens learned from back when Zim was no more a smeet.

If any irken is exposed for what they truly are, then that meant submitting to the enemy which resulted in the irken's death as a consequence to soiling the great irken race. Zim knew this, but luckily there was no enemy, so his conscience was clear. It was for the almighty tallest, they would be the first to bask in Zim’s success. In Zim's defense his knowledge at using the assets that were given to him only proved he was a worthy invader.

Zim put his glove back on with great haste and looked to see the work he had done to the window. Zim made the hole in the window just wide enough for him to get through. Pleased with himself, Zim quickly motion himself into the compartments of the room, hesitantly, Zim moved his magenta filled eyes around to see where in the house he had forced himself in.

The room was mostly dark with only a few hints of light radiating off from the new hole that Zim produced. Zim could see what his guess was what earth considered stars and bits of galaxy and mystery posters scattered all over the walls. Based on his observation, he knew it was the Dib’s room. Slowly, Zim made his way across the room locating where the Dib-worm would be.

Zim found Dib in what the humans called a bed, Zim thought how inferior and primitive the humans are, needing to rest was stupid and leads to getting ambushed by your enemy. It made no sense to Zim that humans haven’t evolved yet to go without sleep like other species. Zim watched the human breath in and out with curiosity. Zim had never seen the human sleep before. The Dib-pig looked so vulnerable, so easy to take out, thought Zim, but brushed those thoughts out, because Zim hated to admit this to himself, but there was no other irken let alone another human who could compete in intelligence, skill, and determination.

Zim broke his focus on Dib and quietly took out from his pak, a small flask that contained liquid with a pinkish hue. Zim presided to move atop of the bed, a little shake occurred and Zim stopped abruptly. Zim looked back to see if the Dib had woken up. Dib only shuffled in his sleep and shifted his body from the left side to the right of the bed. With a small sigh, Zim continued to move as close as he could to Dib. Once Zim felt that he was close as he could get, Zim used his pak legs and hustled himself up and hovered a little just above the Dib-worm’s head. Zim unscrewed the top of the bottle and poured the liquid over Dib’s head.


	2. Did it work?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After pouring the mind control serum on Dib, Dib starts to feel the side-effects of the serum but Zim doesn't yet realize the effects of his control serum.

Chapter 2: Did it work?

With quick reflects Dib’s body made him woke up immediately with a gasp. Dib’s eyes hadn’t adjusted yet to what he just felt on his head. Dib slowly rubbed his eyes and for a second he thought he saw a figure that seemed to resembled Zim by the window. He quickly rubbed his eyes again and grabbed his glasses to look back at the same spot his eyes first looked up. There was nothing there, Dib remembered then to check his head for what felt like water.

Dib rubbed his head to find that it was quite dry. Dib then to confirm that what he did feel was liquid and moved over and checked his bed for any leftover residue that might have fallen off. Again, there was nothing, did he dream it or was his body acting up? Dib looked more closely and noticed the difference in the light coming from the window. Dib swore that he had closed his window the other night.

Dib got out of bed and moved closer to the window in question and saw that there was a hole in the middle of the window, based on the size it would have been something small. Dib quickly moved to the direction of his computer and quickly typed in his password. Dib quickly pulled up the monitors for all the cameras and replayed the events that occurred in the last day. Dib paused when he saw Zim leave out of his base around five in the morning.

Dib looked back at the window, “shit!” Dib rolled under his tongue, Dib was right Zim was here, Zim must have poured something on his head, but what? Dib didn’t think about it anymore and rushed quickly to get ready and make his way to Zim’s base.

Zim was in his underground laboratory laughing with a sinister grin, “now that big-headed Dib will know the power that is Zim!” Zim then was trying to decide which type of tasks would he get Dib to do once Dib would get here.

Gir was making his way out of the elevator and spun around Zim and asked, “is Mary coming over to play?” Gir didn’t mind Mary because to Gir, Mary was the only person his master seems to like, under all the fighting, lip-smacking, and contentment, there was a bond that held the two together. Gir didn’t know what this bond was, only that his master and Mary were at their best when together in each other’s presence.

“Yes Gir, and once the Dib-stink shows up, he will be Zim’s servant and then I can take over this filthy planet and then we can finally go home.” Gir nodded his head and went back to the elevator so as not to miss his favorite show. Zim let Gir be and went back to scheming on what would be the first thing that he would like Dib to do.

Dib was exhausted, when he finally was at the entrance of Zim’s base, Dib would normally break into Zim’s base, but he had a feeling that Zim already knew that he would show up. Dib took up his hand ready to knock onto Zim’s door, Gir automatically opens the door with a, “Hi Mary!!!” With open arms, Dib stepped back a bit taken back by the interruption caused by the little robot.

“Master said you would come over Mary.” With happy glee, Gir moved over and sat back on the couch watching TV. Dib stepped inside the house looking around and placing his eyes back again to Gir, “Zim’s waiting for me?” Dib spoke out unexpectedly, he waited for the robot’s reply, “master’s in the lab” Gir said and quickly got up and got himself a bowl of nachos and went right back to what he was doing.

Dib moved passed Gir and went into the kitchen, or at least that’s what Dib thought it was supposed to be. Dib thought it was funny how Zim couldn’t have figured out by now human customs after being on earth for almost a decade.

Dib moved along to the refrigerator and open the door and walked right into a hidden elevator which lead to the lab. Dib used to go through the trash can, but once Dib went through his growth spurt, Dib couldn’t fit into it anymore, it wasn’t until about a few years later that he learned that there were other ways into Zim’s laboratory.

“Computer”, called Dib, “What is it?” In the most deadpan voice, the computer could muster. “Take me down to Zim’s lab a.s.p!” Dib commanded to the computer, with a heavy sign, the computer opened the elevator to the lab. Dib stepped forward and the doors closed behind him.

When the elevator finally went all the way the doors opened and Dib gazed at the old laboratory, then in the corner of his eyes he saw Zim. Dib walking in the direction of the small alien, briskly Dib says, “Zim! what did pour on me?” Dib demanded to know, Dib stopped abruptly as Zim turned around ready for a fight.

“Dib-stink, what a pleasant surprise, and here I thought you wouldn’t show up.”

Dib was about to argue with Zim when his vision started to cloud. Dib moved back, rubbing his eyes to see if this attempt would clear his eyes. Dib tried to look back again at Zim and once Dib met Zim’s eyes he felt his vision cloud in a mist of pink. Zim noticed the delayed reaction from Dib and notice the human wasn’t focusing on Zim.

“Dib-idiot, “what’s the matter?” Zim wouldn’t think of caring for his enemy, but he forgot for a second about the effects of the mind control serum. After a bit, Zim got a light-bulb moment and without hesitation grinned and said, “Dib-brain, do you want to tell Zim anything?”

Dib’s vision finally was clearing up and heard Zim’s question. Dib was about to answer Zim with a sarcastic reply when Dib stopped himself. Dib started to notice things that he didn’t see before about Zim. How Zim’s magenta eyes would radiate such a bright pink color and Zim's expressions were so nice to Dib, how Zim’s antenna would move about depending on the situation, and how even if Zim was small, Zim’s body frame was slender… Dib felt disgusted for a second, why was he having these thoughts? He remembered having these feelings when he was younger but chalked it up to confusion and by accident. Dib had repressed his feelings for years, but why now when he should be angry at Zim.

Zim was starting to get fed up with Dib’s lack of talking, Zim decided to move to Dib. Zim reached out and grabs Dib by the top of his coat, “wake up you stupid Dib,” Zim says while shaking Dib.

Dib came back to reality and quickly knock off Zim’s grip on him. “Zim what hell did you put on my head!!!” Dib finally spoke out, Zim was sort of glad that at least the Dib-filth was responding to his commands.

Zim was not listening to the Dib's plight and only wanted to see whether or not his mind control serum worked. “Dib-stink, fetch me that small flask on the table,” Zim said in an authorizing voice.

Dib looked at the alien again with bewilderment, “Zim, tell me right now what you put on my head this morning!!!”

When looking again at Zim he felt his chest tighten, it felt horrible. Why was he feeling like this? Dib was starting to think that whatever Zim had put on him was the messing with his organs. Zim looked at Dib with a straight face but looked away with a tint of dark green to the face. Dib couldn’t understand why Zim was blushing for? Didn’t he hear him?

“What is wrong with you, Zim?” Zim turned to the direction of his computer and called to it, “computer playback what the stupid Dib idiot said.”

“Ugh…” the computer said as the screen switched on and started the quick recording. Dib was distraught but reluctantly turned to watch the video. “Zim I have had feelings for you for a long time, do you love me!!!?” the video clip ending with a flickering sound.

Dib frozen in place, his brain was trying to wrap around and process what exactly he had said. Zim's face flush grew greener due to having to listen to what the Dig-pig had said again. Zim turned around facing away from Dib in order to ponder what could have gone wrong with his serum. Zim thought some more and carefully went through his memories of the past day. What was he missing, Zim was sure that he researched theories and experiments done with other species on the subject. Zim was then pulled from his thoughts by Dib who was pulling Zim by his pink tunic.

“Zim I didn’t mean to...” Dib stopped himself, he tried again and said, “I don’t know what’s going on and why I’m telling you anything about me.” Dib realized that he was trying to explain himself when he really shouldn’t. Why should he have to explain himself when it was Zim who caused all the problems. Dib hated feeling like this like he was left open and vulnerable. Dib never thought that what Zim could have done to him to make him speak about his feelings that he had long forgotten until today.

“Zim, did you give me a truth serum or something?” Dib said finally able to form a sentence.

Zim wouldn’t admit that he was trying to control the human and make him his servant. So, Zim lied, “nothing gets passed you stink-Dib,” Zim said with a bit flair to keep Dib from questioning his actions.

Dib learned how to read Zim over the years, his gut was telling him that Zim wasn’t completely giving him the whole story. “Zim, I don’t have time to be playing games with you, tell me exactly what you did to me?"

Dib was starting to get fed up with repeating himself to Zim who was acting obviously knew that Zim wasn’t going to comply so easily.

Zim noticed that Dib was starting to get riled up, it made him happy, but Zim put off the emotion and quickly motioned his pak to remove the flask from this morning. “Zim has been honest with the Dib, see look this is the flask that I poured on you while you laid motionless.” Zim gestured to Dib as proof of his fake plan.

Dib looked at the empty flask, Dib glazed at it briefly and moved closer to Zim. Dib was about to snatch the flask from Zim, but Zim pulled back in time for Dib to miss it.

“Not so fast Dib-pig, you can’t have this flask,” Zim protested, and Zim tried to grab Dib’s trench coat again to calm the human down. Dib’s instincts kicked in and leaped back, but Zim caught his hand with Dib’s instead.

Dib’s focus shifted to Zim’s claws, they were intertwined with his and Dib felt his pulse quicken. Dib knew that Zim’s claws were sharp, heck many of their battles left proof all over his body over the years. Dib almost felt nostalgic for how they first met and how each battle gave him and maybe Zim purpose. Dib’s thoughts again were betraying him and his body wasn’t acting right. Dib felt sicken and warmth from Zim’s touch. As a result, his physical reaction was a quick flash of red all over his face, Zim noticed the human’s flesh change color and wondered if the human was losing it and had some disease.

Both Dib and Zim let go simultaneously, “Dib-brain, what matter of humanoid disease did you contract this time?” Zim demanded while Dib was trying to compose himself before he would do or say something that he would regret.

“First of all, the only reason I’m even like this is because of you!!!” Dib shouted with his face still red. Zim moved back suddenly out of instinct.

“Zim doesn’t take responsibility for the Dib human’s lack of body preservation,” Zim declared.

“God Zim, you know what forget it, I’m leaving and I will figure this out on my own. It’s obvious whatever you did this time to me backed fired and as always, I get the pleasure of cleaning up your messes” Dib spoke with disdain in his voice.

Before Zim could protest, Dib was already halfway through the lab and made his way to the elevators. Zim rushed after the human, but it was too late, Zim only managed to get a few strains of Dib’s hair before the elevator door closed and Dib was heading up to the top of the Zim’s base.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason that I have made it to chapter 2 so quickly was that I had time to make at least two chapters. The story will start to get spicier after this chapter, I won't promise, I can at least say for sure that the setup for this fic is at least over for the most part. Thank you again if you read all the way to the end of this chapter and my previous chapter. Like I said before, I'm still trying to get the hang of this story XD


	3. Slow Realizations Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After witnessing the small changes in Dib's behavior Zim decides to solve the effects and the problem with his plans. He soon realizes somethings between the human and himself.

Zim didn’t bother to fight Dib anymore, Zim decided that he should switch his focus to the strains of hair that his claws had collected from the Dib’s massive head. Zim came to the conclusion that whatever matter of disease the Dib human had, he was gonna see if that was the reason why his serum didn’t work.

Zim moved back to his computer and spoke, “computer I need you to analyze the DNA that I collected from the stink Dib,” Zim said in the most commanding tone that Zim could muster.

“I don’t want to touch the inferior human DNA!” the computer protest, “Zim has no time to deal with your squabbles computer, just give Zim the results so I can see why my serum didn’t affect the Dib.”

Zim placed the hair samples on to the scanner, the computer reluctantly scanned the samples and started processing the contents that Zim had given to the computer. The screen on the monitor was loading the data into Zim’s files, the screen flashed in big pink letters “DNA Scan Complete.”

“Excellent, now computer what are the results of the Dib’s DNA?” Zim questioned with excitement and concern.

“It appears that the human known as Dib Membrane has higher than normal levels of testosterone in their body as well as their human emotional behavior shifts irregular from time to time, based on the samples provided."

The computer was then silent and Zim asked more questions, “computer how does this testosterone and changes in the Dib-pig’s brain have to do with my serum?” Zim waited for the computer to response.

“Testosterone in human males is considered a hormone which helps younger males reach the adult stage in a human’s life. The hormone helps promote growth in the fur or what humans call “hair” that covers the human body, increases height, bone and muscle strength in males. It is also told that testosterone helps males to remove fats from their body more efficiently in their body called their fat metabolism..."

Zim interrupted the computer’s rambling, “yes this all good information, but since the Dib has more than the normal levels, what does the information that you have presented thus far have to do with the serum?” Zim concluded and let the computer speak, “I was getting to point master!” the computer spoke in a more argumentative tone.

“If human males contain more testosterone than normal, it could lead to complications such as an increased chance of developing prostate cancer.

Zim interjects, “what about the Dib-beast’s irregular behavior!” Zim was growing impatient and wanted to get to the root of the problem.

“I wasn’t finished yet!!! growled the computer. “Human males will have changes to the body such as; rapid heart rate, the behavior of human males will lead to having nervousness, agitation, and even depression if left untreated.” Snapped the computer, "the most common occurrence from all listings is that human mating is increased based on a human male's testosterone level. I am done now master...” with a huff and the computer turned itself off before Zim had a chance to comment.

Zim was left alone with his thoughts, “stupid computer if you had a point you should have just gotten to it!” Zim mouthed off, then took out one of his pak legs and plugged it into one of the slots under the computer table. After retrieving the data the computer spoke about, Zim looked over the results for himself.

“Increase in the human mating rituals,” Zim thought, “Is that why the stupid worm was acting weird?” Zim pondered, “the computer said that nervousness was a sign of this hormone increases in the human’s body.”

Zim was trying to put the puzzle together in his irken head. Zim felt a jolt in his spine at the thought that had come to his mind, “did Zim create a love serum and not a mind-control serum?” Zim’s face grew with fear and dread with the passing thought.

How could he, Zim, create such a stupid serum when he checked all the conditions, tests, and experiments. Zim opened up his pak and scanned through the files in his memory for any signs of error that could have taken place. Zim noticed briefly that during the final preparations before he mixed the chemicals together that Gir was in the lab. Zim played the memory slowly to see what Gir was doing, Gir in the recording was watching his master contently when the robot saw some random liquid in a tube along with the chemicals that Zim had set to the side. The robot thought it was a clever idea to mix it with one of the chemicals that Zim would later mix in to create the serum.

“Of course it would be Gir” Zim had said to himself, “gonna have to remind myself to not let Gir in when testing,” Zim told himself. Zim wanted to yell at the robot, but choose to focus again on the problem at hand. How fast would the serum affect the human? What besides the computer had said would effect Zim? Many questions were circling through the alien’s mind when his thoughts were interrupted by the human’s declaration that had taken place an hour ago.

“_Zim I have had feelings for you for a long time...” _was said over in Zim’s thoughts.

Zim brushed off the thought, what was this emotion that Zim felt, Zim, moved from the computer to a nearby room. It was Zim’s makeshift human bedroom, Zim only used the room as a storage hold since irkens didn’t need to sleep. In the room to the far back of the wall held a giant mirror which when opened would show an array of irken military attire.

Zim looked at his reflection, his face was greener than usual, his heart was moving faster than normal. “Computer! Zim blasted his voice loudly so to wake the machine, no sound, “Damn it! Computer so help me, I need your analysis right now!” Zim was riling himself up due to foreign physical notions that he was feeling.

“What now! Spat the computer, “Zim needs your immediate analysis of Zim’s body right now!” Zim was growing furious with the lack of compliance from the machine.

The computer sensing the change in Zim’s tone, quickly scanned the invader. “initial scan complete, now scanning for any irregularities in your system, master.” the computer spoke at a steadfast pace.

“Rapido!” Zim blurted out due to the growing concern he was feeling from his inner demons.

“System scanning is complete,” spoke the computer finally, “What is wrong with Zim?” Zim didn’t like waiting and wanted to fix whatever was wrong with him so he could go back to focusing on the Dib human and his serum.

“Based on the readings, it would seem that master is feeling a human emotion” “how could Zim get such an inferior human emotion, computer!?” Zim chimed in, “master the human emotion you are currently experiencing is called, love.”

Zim was stunned for a second, until he asked the computer, “what is this love of which you speak of?”

“Love is what the humans call “complicated” with the most sarcastic voice the computer could muster.

“Computer stop with the games and give it to Zim straight!” Zim had a hard enough time with human culture and now he was expected to learn about this human emotion.

“Technically it’s not straight in your case master,” the computer blurted out with a hint of laughter to its voice.

“Computer so help me, if you don’t explain this very second, I will have you reprogrammed into one of my many devices or may be used as a toy for Gir to play with.”

Zim almost pondered further into the idea, but the computer quickly changed its tune and said, “ the meaning of love could be best-described master as feeling a close connection or bond with another being, to feel either adoration or concern for the well being of said being and lastly in some extremes remain with said being for all time as the humans call it.”

“So, you mean like mating, right?” Zim questioned to the computer, “ no master, the humans call it marriage and only refer to mating among lesser life forms like many of the species that live among the humans here on the planet Earth.”

“Humans are weird,” spoke Zim, “Zim doesn’t feel such things, especially not to the Dib human,” Zim protested.

“Maybe you finally have short-circuited computer, Zim said nonchalantly.

“I can safely say that my scanners haven’t gone undone master, everything else from your body is in primary condition master.” With that, the computer logged off again not wanting to further debate with its master on the subject.

Zim didn’t want to believe what the results had said about him, but there they were in his face. Zim didn’t like this new feeling, especially when it was now getting in the way of his mission. Zim moved out of the room and back into the laboratory, once back into the lab his thoughts again would go back to Dib,_ “Zim I have had feelings for you for a long time...”_

Zim shut his eyes and remembered who he really cared for, his tallest. Every irken from the time that they were a smeet worship the tallest. Zim was no exception, only it would be considered a borderline obsession. It wasn’t until his assigning to this dirt planet that he had almost forgotten about his thoughts of the tallest. Sure, he would give them a weekly report from time to time, but the reports lessen as time went on.

Zim’s only obstacle was the Dib human. The human was the only thing in this speck of dirt that Zim acknowledges as a rival. Dib in his younger years would be a few steps behind Zim’s plan and somehow manage to stop his every move. Zim admired the determination in the human’s eyes, his ability to learn fast and skills with technology. Zim thought long and hard the last time they fought, it was an epic battle and both parties had lost consciousness from the blood, cuts, and lack of strength left.

Zim snapped back to reality when realizing that he was complimenting his enemy. “Nonsense!” thought Zim, as if the human was truly worthy of his feelings. Zim thought back to what he had said about the stinking human, “his” Zim spoke in a whispering tone, Zim blushed at the thought. It was then that Zim had begone to see that this emotion, “love” as the computer called it was contagious based on the Dib’s latest behavior and wanted to remove it as quickly as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted this part in the story to be one chapter, but I didn't want it to be too long so it is two-parter for this and the next chapter. Sorry, if it seems I'm waffling around, the story is writing itself, so thank you to those who seem to like it XD


	4. Slow Realizations Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After learning that Zim has messed with Dib's emotions, Dib decides to investigate the cause and learns somethings about his own thoughts on Zim.

Dib had just left Zim’s house and was exhausted by the time he had arrived at his house. He wanted to hurry to his father’s laboratory down in the basement to get some answers as to why he blurted out his most inner repressed feelings about Zim. With that realization, Dib wanted to shrink and disappear into the void.

“Why of all times did Zim have to make something like this?” Dib wondered to himself unless there was a reason and the alien wasn’t telling him.

After many years, their battles together grew less and many of Zim’s plans to take over the earth grew into more of small experiments. Dib didn’t care at the time of the change in Zim’s methods as long as there was a spark in the alien’s schemes than he was happy. Dib stopped his continuous thoughts and found himself in front of his door. He took out his keys and unlocked the door and surveyed his surroundings, on one of the walls was a clock and it read seven o’clock. That wasn’t good, it was around the time that his dad would get up for his all-important meeting that he had mentioned the night before.

Dib quietly moved past the living room and stopped to check between the hall to see if there was any sign of his dad. He moved his head from the left to the right, the coast was clear so far, so he continued his movement and ended up by the door that leads to the laboratory. Dib did his best to move his hand turning the knob as quietly as possible. There was a slight cracking sound when the door was starting to open, Dib stopped abruptly and waited to see if he had woken anyone in the house. Dib didn’t hear anything, so continued to open the door further, when he started to hear the cracking sound again, this time he shot the door open just enough for him to quickly move down into the dark staircase below.

Dib closed the door behind him and moved down the stairs, it was always a trip to the lab due to his dad’s sense of security. In the past, Dib had been told before he was born that many scientists that either worked with his dad or learned about his dad’s genius wanted his dad’s experiments to claim as their own. After some time Dib made his way through the last set of stairs and saw the metal door that leads to the entrance of the laboratory.

On the right side of the door was an electric pad used for entry. Dib moved his right hand and touched the pad, it lite up and scanned his hand. The pad spoke, “scan analysis complete, hello Dib” said the computer.

“Hello computer” Dib spoke back, his dad had equipped the security to only recognize people in the Membrane family. With the quick reply, Dib moved through the entrance and into the lab.

The laboratory was fitted with many different machines that contained tubes of various sizes and shapes. In the middle was a table used for many of his dad’s experiments. To the right of the lab was another door, Dib started heading to the direction of that door. Dib turned the knob and saw the things he needed, in the small room was a computer set up with many monitors and other tech that he would need.

Dib closed the door and started up the computer. Dib typed fast and after putting in the final keys into the computer a small machine next to Dib let go of some cables. Dib took the cables into his hands and plugged them into the computer.

“Computer I need you to run a diastolic on my body to see if there is anything irregular going on.” He spoke to the machine and in response the computer lite up and said, “I would need a sample from you to complete the task you require, sir”

Dib motioned to his head and pulled hard, a little pinch of pain left Dib’s head and he placed his hair on the tray that the computer had slid out for him. Dib hit the enter button and the tray disappeared back into the computer. The computer screen changed and was analyzing and loading the new information that was being processed.

After a few minutes, the computer spoke to Dib, “DNA Sampling Complete” and changed the screen to the results from Dib’s hair.

Dib scrolled over the results and everything seemed to be in order until he saw that his testosterone levels were too high. Why would Zim want his hormone levels to be high? Dib pondered the idea and looked back at the results, he found besides the high levels of testosterone that his brain waves were irregular.

“Computer what do the results indicate?” Dib asked the computer with some patience, the computer ran through different simulations to give out the best logical answer to the human’s question. For what seemed like hours, it was only ten minutes and the computer finally acknowledged the human, “there could be four different theories as to why you have these irregularities.”

The computer paused for a second for the human to process, “continue computer” Dib granted, “option one; is that the subject has exercised too much, option two; the subject has either or currently in an environment that induces the increase in hormones to be produced. Third option, the subject has been eating foods that could increase the levels of hormones being created and lastly, the computer paused for the briefly of seconds; to Dib it seemed like the computer was having trouble just explaining to the human the last option.

“Spit it out computer!” Dib protested it was bad enough that Zim was hiding out information from him and now his dad’s computer was leaving him hanging.

“T..the f...fourth o...option...” The computer really didn’t want to explain the last answer, especially with how illogical it was.

“In the attempt that someone smart enough used the right chemicals together they could theoretically create a concoction that slowly makes a person experience the human emotion called love for another person...” The computer immediately removed the cables and turned itself off due to the absurdity of such an answer.

Dib wanted to protest, but to be honest, if he were the computer, he would have shut off too. The last answer bugged him the most. Sure he was active a lot thanks to Zim coming into his life, but it wasn’t excessive. To his knowledge, he didn’t start eating anything that would increase his testosterone. And yes a lot of his environment was surrounded in a lab, but if anything stress was more of higher probability than his levels of testosterone. Then there was that last bizarre answer, it was possible that when Zim lied to him that it was a truth serum to cover it up the reality that he wanted Dib to love him.

“Zim in love with me?” Dib thought the theory, as well as his thoughts, were stupid, did the alien even know a concept like love? Dib thought that the irken race only cared about conquering nearby planets for the empire, snacks, and height. If Zim did know what love was, he wouldn’t know what to do with such feelings, at least that is what Dib told himself.

Dib remembered what his sister had said the other night, “_you’re always talking about him_...” No more than usual, Dib said to himself, like if he didn’t talk about Zim, some other person would have gotten the credit for discovering the alien. Sure many people didn’t believe Zim was an alien even when he was clearly out of his disguise. That didn’t discourage Dib from still trying to prove to the world that he found proof of aliens and other life besides earth.

After many years even when he graduated early from college, his passion for proving to the world, to those that wronged him, to his dad...His dad was the reason for everything...Dib felt a twitch of sadness, all he ever wanted was for someone to recognize his aspirations, his talents, himself. Was that too much to ask, especially from the one person who Dib thought could learn to understand.

Dib realized then that the only time he was truly happy was when he wad with Zim. Zim was the only one who would give Dib what he wanted, a true rival, someone who equality knew the other’s superiority, saw the potential in the other, and the determination to continue the antics that they had developed since Dib’s early youth. Dib recalled when he snuck into Zim’s lab and overheard a conversation that Zim had with his superiors, Zim called them the Tallest. Apparently, all Zim wanted to do was to impress them and show them that Zim was continuously working on another one of his failed attempts on destroying the earth for his Tallest. They paid no real mind to him and the purple one would be mocking Zim. Zim didn’t seem to notice or as always Zim was in denial of the other’s actions. Zim was cut off from the Tallest the second he started becoming his annoying self to them. It was hilarious at the time, but looking back on it now Dib saw himself in Zim. The thought made him cringe for a second due to internal instinct, on the other hand, Dib didn’t want to admit that they had a lot in common.

The times when Dib was forced to work alongside Zim they made a pretty good team until either him or Zim would get in the way due to their own personal goals. Dib felt warmth due to thinking of Zim too much, he took his right hand and touched his forehead, it was warm. Dib got out of his chair and out of the computer room to find the mirror his dad had in the laboratory. The mirror was in the left corner of the room, Dib looked at his face, it was a light shade of pink and red. He hated that his own feelings were being manipulated by whatever concoction that Zim had poured onto him. He would never admit his repressed feelings to anyone, especially to Zim, that is until this morning.

There was a noise coming from upstairs, Dib gasped for a second, and looked at his watch, it read seven-fifteen. That’s great, he thought, he decided it was best to go through the door that leads to the outside. It was an escape exit used for only emergencies, Dib typed up the password for the exist and left out. Dib didn’t want to caught in the lab and have his dad’s hopes up thinking that he wanted to work on “real science.”

The last time Dib was in the laboratory his dad tried to convince him that instead of working on odd jobs to make money and waste his potential, he should do what his father did. Dib didn’t hate science, just found it too easy and not much of a challenge. The paranoia was Dib’s thrill and passion and working with the group called The Swollen Eyeballs helped further his goals.

Dib made his way through his backyard and to the front of his house. Dib took a big breath, signed and tried to look like he was out after hours. Sure, his dad wouldn’t be happy, but it was either the usual arguments from his dad or having to listen to the disappointments of his dad at Dib. Dib wasn’t in a mood to feel depressed, he had enough trouble today with Zim and didn’t want to add fuel to the flame.

Dib unlocked the door to his house again, ready to be bombarded with his dad’s questions. Instead, he saw Gaz in the kitchen making herself a cup of coffee. Gaz heard the door opening thinking it was her dad forgetting something, only it was her brother Dib. A scowl formed along her face, she was still upset with her brother and it was too early in the morning as it is to deal with him. Dib felt a little better knowing it was Gaz and not his dad. Dib closed the door and moved to the staircase leading to upstairs.

“Why were you gone so early, bro?” Gaz remarked, Dib stopped at the foot of the stairs and turned to Gaz, “I was out checking my cameras to fix them since they weren’t working last night.”

Dib lied to his sister, normally that would be immediate suicide on Dib’s end, but he was so tired and emotionally exhausted that if he did get knocked out by Gaz, at least he wouldn’t have to think too hard about Zim. He would formulate a plan to stop this love concoction from overtaking his way of life later after a nap. Gaz glared at the obvious lie but didn’t press more into it, since for one, she already knew the reason he was out and two, she had early classes to go to. Gaz didn’t say any more to Dib, she finished her coffee, picked up her book bag and headed out the door.

Before closing the door she left Dib one final warning, “whatever Zim is planning it won’t work, so stop going over to his house, I swear you won’t like it when dad finds out you been sneaking out to see Zim, he will get the wrong idea like always.”

Dib retorted Gaz, “Like what you said to him last night, like look sorry for taking your video games and using it without permission, but Zim would have...”

“Taking over the world blah blah blah” Gaz wasn’t having it, “look at this point you should just admit to at least liking Zim, fuck him and get over whatever you two have going on.” Dib was about to object to Gaz, but she closed the door violently, Dib wanted to throw something at the door, but choose not to, it was the last straw in Dib’s sense of denial.

Maybe he should let whatever this serum did and go with the flow. At least maybe it would lead to something less agonizing than having to always debate with the world and his dad. Somewhere deep down in the recesses of his mind he would have loved to felt some form of happiness. In reality, he knew that if he let his real emotions go, then the game that he and Zim would have be over. Zim would win and Dib hating losing, especially to that arrogant bug.

Dib moved up the stairs and headed to the direction of his room. Without much thought he plopped himself onto his bed, Dib vowed that he would get back at Zim for messing with him. Before Dib drifted off to sleep, he remembers the blush on Zim’s face from his accidental confession, god why was his brain going to that now when he wanted to sleep. What Dib didn’t realize was that the serum was going its natural course and that his unconscious desires were starting to take fruition.


	5. Decisions Made

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both Zim and Dib make decisions on how to deal with the love serum.

Zim went through the afternoon trying different tests to see if it would cure the alien of this human emotion. So far with no success, the only change was that thanks to the chemical experiment five...Or was it eight? Zim didn’t remember, only now that the irken was a few inches taller than before. He checked himself out in the mirror in his fake bedroom. Originally Zim was 4’11, now he stood at a total of 5’2 in human length. Dib was still taller, he was 5’10, Zim hissed to himself because he knew that the Dib was still taller than him. No matter, he told himself, Zim would still gloat to the stupid human and show him who’s better!... Show Dib…

Zim didn’t think about it until now, he always gave Dib attention, especially when it came to one-upping the only rival he had. Zim activated his pak and went through his memories of only the Dib. He saw that whenever Dib was most active was when Zim was present, sometimes Keef would tell him how whenever Zim was gone for too long the Dib would become paranoid and depressed. Zim asked Keef what these human emotions met? Keef didn’t explain all that well to Zim, the only thing that seems to stick was the Keef had said that the pig stink and Zim seem to need each other. At the time, Zim brushed off Keef’s remarks due to lack of brain worms and that Dib only wanted to destroy Zim.

There was a lot of brushing off when it came to the Dib human, one memory was when Zim accidentally saved the earth just so he could be the one to destroy it. Dib even though they were fighting, stopped and said quietly to Zim, “_ thanks _” hoping the alien wouldn’t hear. Zim did hear but didn’t acknowledge the worm and opted to the usual ranting of how obliviously Zim was the greatest and how the Dib should be grateful for Zim’s sacrifice.

His pak showed Dib’s face change to a shade of pink for the briefest of moments with a smile on the human’s face. Zim didn’t remember this scene, but his pak did. Zim felt warm again thanks to the human’s expression. Zim slapped himself out of his trance and left the room to go back to the second floor where Gir was. 

Gir was upstairs making waffles in the kitchen while the TV was still turned on in the other room. Zim came out of the refrigerator and noticed the mess that the little robot was making. Zim didn’t say anything because, the last time he complained to the robot, Gir weep so loudly that he almost broke everything on the first floor. Zim moved as quietly as possible, he wasn’t in the mood for food and wanted to get out of the base for some peace. Zim went to the door, activating the floor to change Zim to his disguise and went right out the door.

Zim needed some time to think, so moving to the back of his base, Zim slowly removed his pak legs and climbed up to the roof. When Zim was on the roof he put his pak legs back and sat down to think what further action should he take with the Dib.

“Knowing the stink pig, he already knows about the serum,” Zim said to himself. Zim didn’t want to interact with the Dib for fear of causing more of human emotions to occur within him or even the fake emotions that Dib could spread to Zim. Zim decided that the best course of action to take would be to avoid the worm baby for as long as possible. Zim then decided to sit on the roof for a few more minutes before having to deal with Gir. With that decided Zim took out his pak legs again and descended back behind his base and back into the base.

Dib woke up late in the afternoon after all the news with Zim and his crazy antics. He was grateful that Zim didn’t come again for another round. The clock in his room displayed the time five o'clock exactly, Dib had never slept so much in his life thanks to his hobbies and Zim. He must have been stressed out thanks to Zim’s serum. Dib left his room and went to take a shower since he didn’t take off his clothes that he had on when he left for Zim’s in the morning.

After the shower, he went down the stairs to get whatever food was left in the refrigerator. All was left was some leftovers from the other night and milk for cereal. Dib wasn’t in the mood for leftovers and took the milk out for some Bloaty’s breakfast cereal. This was Gaz’s favorite cereal, but like before didn’t care and was hungry. He would simply buy his sister more cereal so she wouldn’t have to annoy him later.

After lunch, Dib went back to his room to look over the day’s recordings, when he activated the video, he saw a small reflection of Zim’s shadow from what looked liked the roof. Dib knew the only time Zim was ever on the roof was to get some time to himself and help with plotting ideas that could lead to earth’s demise. Dib’s instincts would have been to go after the alien for uncovering any plans that Zim would be plotting and to avoid as much future pain as possible.

Dib instead kept watching the footage to see what Zim was doing, from the looks of it Zim just sat on the roof and thought and talked to himself. The camera was too far to pick anything that Zim said, so he had to make do with just the visuals. From the look of things, Dib picked up the idea that Zim was probably thinking about him and not another plan to take over the earth. Dib’s hunches weren’t wrong most of the time.

Dib had learned this morning that Zim had made some kind of love serum and didn’t understand why. Dib closed the recordings and went through all the information that he had collected over the years that pertained to Zim. Pictures, videos, notes, and much more filled Dib’s screen until Dib had to stop the computer from overloading and crashing.

Dib went through his notes and images, “Zim’s an irken from the planet Irk. His leaders known as the tallest from what Zim calls them, make fun of Zim in his face and Zim denies it...”

Dib felt in the back of his mind, a bit sorry for the idiot alien. All his life he had the same treatment done to him just like Zim. Only unlike Zim, Dib stopped caring about those people, he then shifted his focus from wanting their attention to showing all who had wronged him and prove to himself, mostly his dad that he wasn’t crazy or insane. All Dib wanted was to be recognized by the one person who Dib thought should care, his dad.

Dib stopped thinking further down his problems and shifted back to focusing on Zim. All information that Dib looked over, there was no information on the concept of love in the irken databases. If anything, the idea of love was seen as a sign of weakness to irken culture and those who did participate in such activities were marked as defective and thereby terminated.

“Maybe Zim has been on earth too long?” Dib thought this to himself, a small laugh escaped the human’s mouth, no...Dib didn’t want to underestimate his only rival, sure Zim was a moron, but Zim had his moments. Dib would notice at times that whenever Zim wasn’t too distracted by his pride, Zim could make wondrous inventions, ones that would put human weapons to shame. That was why it was so hard for Dib to get Zim discovered, no one would take him seriously, only him.

“Only me...” Dib trailed off again, his heart started to beat rapidly again and wanted to blame the serum for his heart acting up. He knew though that even without the serum his heart would beat regardless. The only thing the serum did was reawaken Dib’s repressed feelings for Zim. 

Dib closed all the tabs from his computer and turned off the device. Dib was going to get to the bottom of Zim’s serum and made his move on the alien. Dib decided that the best way to tackle the problem was to sneak back into Zim’s base, find all information on Zim’s computer about the serum and then make an antidote in his father’s lab.

Dib nodded to himself and started to pack up some things that he would need to collect all data. Dib would strike at midnight when Zim would be his busiest and most distracted. 


	6. Change of Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zim decides to relocate his base using his invisible force field to stop Dib from seeing him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally getting back into writing this story, thank you to those who enjoy this story and read it.

Zim for the rest of the day updated his security systems to the base so Dib wouldn’t bother him until he felt safe to interact with the human. Zim used his pak legs to climb on the walls to check to see that there was no interference coming from Dib. Over the years the Dib beast would make attempts at monitoring him through hidden cameras when working. Zim always admired that the human would do anything to achieve whatever goal he had in mind. Only the problem was that Dib’s goals conflicted with his, now more than ever. This caused Zim to blush, now of all times to think about Dib in a “loving” way only made Zim focus harder in removing himself from Dib’s sights. 

Zim moved from the lab, the kitchen, the living room, and the rest of his base to make the necessary modifications to ensure that Dib this time wouldn’t see him for a while at least. After going over everything with the computer and his scanners everything seem to be going Zim’s way. 

Gir motioned his way and lifted himself onto his master’s back to see what he was doing. “Master, why the new toys for the house?”

“These are not toys Gir, your master has developed his own invisible force field to trick the stupid Dib worm from coming over. This will allow Zim time to make some new plans to get rid of Dib for another day,” Zim explained to Gir with a stride in his steps. 

“Ooh! Won’t Dib just tap the house to see that we are still here?” Gir’s eyes turned red when questioning his master’s plan. 

Zim was surprised that Gir could be cable of logical thinking but remembered the time when Gir had all-knowing wisdom. It didn’t end well and almost cost Zim his life. Luckily Gir’s instant knowledge only came out in small bursts and would just as quickly fade out of existence. 

“Gir, I have to hand it to you, you make a good point…” Zim’s monologue was interrupted by Gir pulling Zim by the cuffs of his Irken uniform. Gir’s eyes were back to their sky blue color, “wee I get to ride the horsy!” Gir squeaked out loud. 

“Gir! Zim is not some weak human slave pet, now get off of Zim this minute!” Zim yelled at Gir. Zim told back his praise for Gir’s good idea and waited for Gir to get off of him. 

Gir rolled off his master and went back to the living room to play with Minimoose and his piggy. 

Zim dusted himself off from Gir’s antics and went back to thinking of where to hide away from the worm baby. 

“Computer, find Zim a suitable location for our base to be relocated for at least one month!” Zim commanded the computer. 

“Ugh like right now!?” The computer said in a deadpan voice.

“Computer for the last time, I don’t need your sassy remarks, just do what Zim commands of thee!” Zim protested to the hunk of metal. 

The computer didn’t retort Zim only scanning all locations close by to find a quick new temporary hideout for the crew to live in. “Scanning Complete” was all the computer said. 

“Read Zim the best option, one where the Dib pig won’t look for me!” Zim rushed the computer. 

“You could live on the far north side of the city by this building called, “Power Play.” Most male adult humans don’t seem to go there too much, master,” replied the computer.

Zim looked at the building, it looked quite positively disgusting and unkempt. Zim could never understand how humans could live in such conditions. “What kind of store names their establishment such a weird sounding name?” Zim thought to himself, “Computer what type of business does this building conduct?” Zim asked the computer. 

“Ahhh… I don’t think…” Before the computer could finish his sentence Zim cuts him off, “computer tell Zim now! Or I will let Gir play with your circuits like the last time!” Zim threatened the computer. 

“No!” Yelled the computer in fear, “it is a male brothel for only human males to use.” 

“What!!?” Zim spat out loud, “why would any human want to participate in such primitive acts!” Zim yelled out, he never got the appeal to do such acts even among other alien races. Zim knew such business were everywhere in the galaxy, heck there was even a planet called Urf which was made exclusively for all alien species to breed with one another. At least that was what Zim called it.

Irkens never cared much for mating thanks to the advancement of cloning. The tallest from eons passed declared that such acts were unfit of Irken culture, especially in the invading business. If any Irken was caught doing anything close to mating with another species let alone another Irken deactivation would take place. Never letting the Irken’s pak memories be passed along to the new generations of Irkens. 

Zim being the loyal follower of all Irken rules and the tallest never dared questioned such laws. That was until Dib came into his life, the stupid fur pig of a human made Zim’s squeedlyspooche do backflips. Zim was curious if the human wanted to participate in such activities. When Zim was still in high shool he saw many of his classmates change from only caring about themselves to wanting to be “couples” as many humans called themselves at the time. The Dib was human, after all, many of his classmates always told Zim how unusual Dib was and never thought that Dib would ever find anyone or thing to be with him. At the time, Zim laughed his butt off, but now Keef’s thoughts came back to Zim when telling him how Dib would be depressed when he wasn’t around. Zim hated disappointing his tallest, that was the same feeling Dib was giving Zim now. Zim wished he hadn’t listened to Keef that day, Zim threw out his current thoughts and refocused back on the problem he had. 

“Computer is there any other locations Zim could live near?” Zim said exhaustedly. 

The computer reluctantly suggested, “ we could live by taco stands or that Keef child that you use to go to human shool with..? The Dib human seems to never go to these types of places, master…” 

The computer was hit with a wrench provided by Zim’s response to the computer’s new suggestions. “Computer you have been infected by the human virus haven’t you because those are all horrible ideas!” Zim said with a concernedly annoyed expression on his face.

“Ouch, you don’t have to hurt the tech master!” The computer said in such a deadpan anguish voice. 

“Computer you can’t feel, at least Zim knows for a fact that you shouldn’t feel anything… Did Gir mess with you when I wasn’t looking?” Zim was worried that he would have to repair the computer during this trying time, how irritating he told himself. 

“Not on your life master!” Responded the computer

“Whatever, Zim guesses we don’t have a choice since it is almost morning and I don’t want to see or deal with the Dib idiot right now. Computer un-plug the base and set our new coordinates to that… “Power Play…” Location this instant!” Zim instructed the computer. 

“The moved will take ten minutes is this okay, master?” Asked the computer

“That is a sufficient amount of time, let Gir and Minimoose know to pack their things computer,” Zim said while leaving to collect his most important belongings. Zim decided to leave Dib with one last trick before disappearing from his life. 

“Zim will miss seeing the look on Dib’s suffering face when he sees what Zim has planned for the stinking Dib pig,” Zim said to himself in gitty delight. 


	7. Dib’s Resolve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dib has a major fight with his father and finds out that Zim is gone. Dib decides what he needs to do to find Zim.

For the rest of the afternoon, Dib tried his best to pack all the necessary things he would need in order to sneak into Zim’s base. However, his sister Gaz kept distracting him about taking the last of her cereal. As well as reminding him that apparently, their dad needed him for another “helping day” as his dad called it. 

Dib hated these types of interruptions, he made quick work of Gaz’s complaints, going to the grocery store and using the leftover money he had saved up from working odd jobs to buy three boxes of Bloaty’s breakfast cereal for her. Once he was done with Gaz he had to go see his father at his laboratory. Dib had received a text message from his dad just confirming Gaz’s relay message to him earlier. 

Dib sigh, he never liked going to his father’s lab. Many of his father’s colleagues always compared Dib to his father. His appearance, his status as his son, and how many of them looked at him like he was a freak. No thanks to his father’s ramblings, the only people who bothered being nice to Dib were some of his father’s closest science business partners. It was obvious to Dib they just wanted to use him to get close to his father. Dib learned early on to never trust anyone who worked or got along with his father. 

Dib arrived around eight o’clock in the evening, the laboratory building was huge, roughly fifty stories tall with fifty floors dedicated to each project the professor was working on. The building itself was all white with bits of grey splashed around the windows and doors. Dib went through the usual background check of identifying himself as Dib Membrane, showing his temporary ID card, letting the laboratory scanners examine his body to see if his DNA matched his ID card and finally placing his backpack into a small box to be scanned for any weapons Dib might have had. 

Once everything checked out positive for Dib he went to the very top floor. The elevator ride up was monotonous with the usual annoying jiggle playing for each floor going up. The elevator stopped at the fifty floor with a ding, Dib walked out slowly not wanting to see his father so soon after their fight they had the other day. Dib past many rooms along the way, many scientists working on his father’s new project called, “The Wonders of Plasma Energy.” 

Dib found his father’s secretary on the left-hand side of the main floor taking calls and sending out emails to his father’s constituents. There was a large door in the center of the main floor, that was where Dib needed to go. Dib reluctantly had to converse with the secretary in order to see his dad. 

Dib waited for an opening so he could talk with her. “Hello Ms. Tammy, I’m here to see my old man, could you let me in to see him please?” 

“Another helping day, Dib? Please sit by the waiting room while I let your dad know you are here to see him thank you.” Ms. Tammy replied back using her work phone to call the Professor to come out. 

Dib didn’t respond to her question, it was the same thing every time he was called here, another attempt from his father to show him how science was the only good job for Dib to pursue. He walked and sat down by his usual seat, in the middle of the room. Dib didn’t have time for the same song and dance number he and his father would do every other week. He needed to focus back on fixing himself from Zim’s stupid mess and to stop thinking about Zim in a loving relationship. He remembered what his subconscious had spoken out to Zim, “ ** _Zim I have had feelings for you for a long time…_ ** ” 

God, Dib wanted to die from embarrassment, how could Zim do this to him, he thought he was finally over Zim. He would stop every little plan the alien would make and expose Zim to his father to prove to him that one, aliens existed and two, that his father could be proud of him for not only protecting the stupid human race from disaster but to see that he wasn’t crazy. That he was normal just like every other person his dad knew.

His heart was racing again, the thought of Zim must have sparked up the serum’s effect because Dib was feeling horrible. Like there were butterflies in his stomach, his palms were starting to sweat and his face flushed bright red. He felt like how he was when in middle shool, when after a few years of Zim living on earth he started to see the similarities the two had. How Zim would be the only one to believe him when he saw creatures like the Mothman or Bigfoot. When he was younger Zim convinced his father to at least listen and hear out Dib’s complaints and concerns over his life. When Dib graduated early from college Zim was the only one who congratulated him in the most obnoxious way possible. 

“ ** _Zim is not surprised the Dib pig would get out so fast from your primitive human learning academy. You are the only human who has any brains at all on this plague of a planet. Feel proud of yourself Dib not many creatures get such praise from the almighty Zim!_ ** ” 

Dib face palmed himself to stop thinking of the past, it only made things worst. He chalked all his thoughts into blaming the serum for messing with his brain.

The doors abruptly opened to see a smiling and exhausted Professor with his signature grey gloves holding two different glass flasks while looking for his son.

“Dib there you are, just in time I need you to…” The Professor’s speech was cut short with Dib interrupting him.

“Dad, I can’t work with you today, I need to do something…” Dib tried to come up with an excuse to not be at the lab today. “I need to see Zim! I promised I would help him today and tomorrow with some work that he is unfamiliar with, like mechanics and tinkering.” 

The Professor took in what his son had said, “Dib I knew it! You and Zim are getting closer. I’m glad to know that you have someone to talk to. I was worried that you would remain by yourself for the rest of your life.” 

Dib was starting to get angry that his dad wasn’t taking the hint and worst he was misinterpreting his words. 

“Dad for the millionth time Zim and I aren’t together! I only promised to work with him because he would pay me for my time, that’s it! Dib yelled at his dad. 

“Son, you don’t have to shout I’m right here. It’s okay I am fine with you two being in a relationship. If Zim can help you get over your ridiculous hobby of the supernatural then I am all for…” 

Dib halted the rest of his father’s statement, “as much as I love hearing you mouthing off your delusions of my life to my face I can’t with you today Dad.” 

Dib turned around and headed straight to the elevator with irritation on his face. The Professor is frozen for a second trying to listen to his son’s words. 

“Son I have been patient with your refusal to inherited my work, but for once I am trying to be supportive of your years of friendship with that boy Zim. The least you could do is think about your future and not waste such potential on non-scientific things. That is all I am asking son, I want you to have security especially if something happens to me. Who will look after Gaz and make sure she is in good hands! Your life isn’t just about you, it’s about your family and supporting them.” 

Dib pressed the elevator button going down, listening to his father’s words with anger and disgust. “Dad you are such a hypocrite! Supporting Gaz, the family, what about you! You have never been there for me and especially when all I want from you was an apology for the shit that you give me and even Gaz! You will never understand what it’s like to feel unwanted, unloved, and or appreciated for even helping you when really I shouldn’t. You have never once said thank you, Dib, I am so proud of you Dib, or I may not get your hobby but I am just happy that you like anything!” 

Dib slams his left arm on the wall in anger, “I have decided to leave the house, I am tired of trying to please you thinking that one day you would listen and hear me. Not the deluded version that you keep hearing. The Dib right here in reality! I am not sorry, dad have fun with the rest of your life!” 

The elevator doors open and Dib quickly ran in and smashed the button for the doors to close. He could only hear his father say to him to stop but refused to listen any further. The elevator ride down was horrible, Dib hadn’t cried since he was a kid. Today was the first time in a while where Dib felt like crying. He tried his best to hold in his emotions, his throat filling up which made his breathing become shallow.

When the elevator finally stopped, Dib rushed out not stopping to notice the many faces plastered on him. In the fit of anger and loneliness, Dib unconsciously ran all the way past his house, through the streets and ended up where Zim’s house would be. 

Dib stopped a few meters from Zim’s house, Dib was hunched over breathing heavy and gulping up as much air as possible. Tears were streaming down Dib’s face now, “why was it always when his dad would mess up in his life he always found his way back to Zim?” Dib asked himself, just rethinking about what had unfolded earlier made Dib hiccup from the crying. Dib did his best to control his breathing and work through his emotions to be able to confront Zim or just talk with Zim. 

For a few minutes, Dib stood on the sidewalk breathing in and out to become calm. He didn’t look at Zim’s house yet, for fear of tearing up once again. Once Dib felt close to normal breathing and not crying as much Dib finally re-focused back into reality. 

The streets were dark and dim lite with only a few street lights on. The night air was heavy and cold, this made Dib shiver since he forgot to take a coat with him when he left his house earlier. Dib looked to find that Zim’s house was nowhere in sight. 

Dib panicked for a second, “how could Zim leave…” Before Dib finished his thoughts he moved rapidly to the empty plot of land. He moved his right hand touching the air to see if Zim’s house was invisible. There was nothing there, Dib moved all around the area hoping the reality wasn’t so. 

“Zim… Is really… Gone…” Dib said in a whisper, he suddenly remembered his cameras that he had installed around Zim’s house. Dib hurried back to his house to see where Zim would have gone. 

Dib made it home in half an hour, his breathing was raging but he had no time to relax. Dib closed the door to his house hard and ran up the stairs to his room. Dib swiftly closed the door to his room, he sat down typed up his password with quick precision and got to work shuffling through the camera’s recorded memory from his computer. 

When Dib clicked on the video files he was shocked but not surprised. He watched the last few minutes of Zim’s shadow coming closer to each of the hidden cameras and the pictures for each camera went abruptly offline. 

Dib clicked his teeth in annoyance, Zim really didn’t want Dib to follow him this time. 

“I will find you Zim, damn it all! You are the only thing that has ever given me passion… I…” Dib cut himself off. Again the serum was messing with his brain, how could Zim be the only person, alien to make his life less crappy. 

Dib in a fit of rage smashed his two fists onto his computer and huffed right away to pack all his belongings together. 

“No matter where you go, Zim, I will find you, stop you from taking over this world, and fix the mess that you have done to me!” 

Dib only had a backpack and his swollen eyeball suitcase. He would pack what he thought was important, some clothes, some tech, and some food from the refrigerator. He would get the food later, he had to let know Gaz know first where he was going. 

Gaz was in her room playing the lastest new video game, “Zombie Dungeon Slayer.” She heard a few knocks at her door, “Dib I swear if you bother me right now when I am so close to beating this game..!” 

“Gaz I only came by to say that I am leaving the house for good. If you need anything or you get into an emergency just text me, otherwise… This is goodbye…” Dib said with a little bit of uncertainty. He couldn’t believe he was really leaving the only place that should feel like home. 

Dib wasn’t going to change his mind, he would find a place to stay and work his usual odd jobs to survive. His only goal now was to find Zim and make himself a solution to undo the damage that Zim had given him. 

Dib took some leftover food, some milk and headed out the door and left for the other side of town. 


	8. Stressful Obstacles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dib spends six weeks hunting for Zim without much luck. Only to get a hint at the last moment and lose it…

It had been four weeks since Dib left his home away from his father to chase after Zim. It was a lot harder then Dib thought. For the past three weeks, Dib did his best to find an apartment. Most of the places were either too expensive or too far away from the city for Dib’s liking. Dib would sleep in alleys close to his different jobs so he wouldn’t feel worried about the many dangers that could happen to him. 

Eventually, some of his odd jobs were starting to shrink, Gaz only texted once to see if Dib was still okay. He told his sister a lie that he had found a place and was working his usual odd jobs to stay afloat. Dib didn’t want his sister to worry because she was still in college and had tests to study for. 

Gaz only replied with the usual talk of not overdoing it and to move on from Zim. Like that was an easy thing for Dib to do. Dib had made up his mind and he wouldn’t stop for anyone, not even Zim himself… 

On the fourth week, Dib found an apartment in the middle of the city where the rent was cheap, it seemed too good for Dib’s liking. When Dib talked to the apartment manager he found out that the only reason that Dib’s application was approved was thanks to being related to his father. 

The manager wanted to be on good terms with Dib’s father only so his apartment business could be boosted up the social ladder. Dib took the opportunity and lied saying that he would help the man should he need to be called upon. 

Dib decided that in order to make time for Zim he would sacrifice some form of dignity to achieve his goal. With the paperwork signed Dib moved into his new home. 

The apartment itself wasn’t that big, it only had four small rooms; a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom, and a bedroom. The rooms all had the same color; brown with some hints of yellow from Dib’s guess; years of poor management on the owner’s part. 

Dib put what he had left into the bedroom and went into the bathroom to take a long-needed shower. After the shower, Dib rested his head on his suitcase on the floor. It had been a while since Dib had slept in a building and not in the cold. He would look for Zim tomorrow after his job. 

Dib didn’t care at this point about his basic necessities. Dib felt he wasted so much time just trying to find a place to come back to when things could go wrong… Dib used the last of his money to buy himself carry out before going to bed. 

During those four weeks away from Dib, Zim had to deal with so many new humans as his neighbors. Zim hated it, especially when some human males would be so bold as to flirt with him. Zim would do the usual shoot down and without mercy send them flying into the next city. 

Worst of all the computer thought it was best for his master to work at that male brothel as a cover-up to hide away from the Dig stink. Zim at first had a massive tantrum about how the computer had finally lost it and that Zim would rather work at the garbage center than some whore’s shop as Zim called the business.

After two weeks Zim went with the computer’s idea only so that Zim wouldn’t be thinking about Dib’s declaration from weeks ago. Zim went to the male brothel and fought his way in order to talk with the owner of the establishment. 

The owner was a lanky man who didn’t take kindly to the sudden intrusion from this mysterious short man. He was about to call his bodyguards to escort this short person out when he saw that this guy took out every one of his men. 

The owner wanted to panic but Zim wouldn’t let the man’s emotion overrule his judgment. He wanted to work there without complaints or hassle. 

“Zim wishes to provide his services to this particular operation…” Zim played off his tone in order to conceive the owner that he was another human male who wanted to do anything like this. 

The owner looked at Zim like he was crazy, but after looking quickly at Zim he made the arrangement with this unusual man… “The first question, you are not a kid, are you..? I can’t have my place…”

The owner didn’t get to finish his thoughts while Zim took out one of his ray guns to make his point. “Zim is not some human child, got that!” Zim yelled back.

Not wanting to die the owner didn’t make any further complaints and asked Zim, “I get your point… Sir… Now, what type of service would you like to do..?” 

Zim almost gave out an evil smug but reframed and explained to his new boss the terms and conditions of Zim’s new employment. 

For the next two weeks, Zim would work throughout most of the afternoon and late at night on some days. Zim mostly worked either at the bar or as a waiter. He never thought of giving himself to just any human meat sack let alone these human males who would come in during his shift. 

The computer would turn on Zim’s invisible shield during the night or when Zim would have to leave to get food for the base. Gir was the same as always only now thanks to moving closer to the city, Gir would be out all the time either getting tacos, parting out in some of the clubs or messing with lots of the abandoned strays among the alleyways. Minimoose stayed at home and helped the computer with any needed home repairs or upgrades that Zim wanted to be done in his absence. 

On slow days Zim’s mind would wander into thoughts of Dib. “Was that idiot finally able to rid himself of the serum? Was he still looking for him?” Many questions were popping in and out of Zim’s mind. He hated it, why even with his new change in work he would think of that big-headed Dib pig… 

Zim cursed under his breath and tried to refocus back onto his job. Zim blamed Gir and the serum for this new lifestyle that he had to adapt to until he felt for sure that the human was safe to talk to once again. He wanted to blame all these new thoughts on Dib but he knew deep down that it was the serum that was causing this “love” effect on the human’s brain. 

This thought made Zim sad for a brief moment but his human coworkers brought Zim back to the dark reality and got to work serving people drinks and small plates of food. 

Around five o’clock in the evening, Dib picked himself leftovers from one of his jobs and went to work looking for Zim. Dib took out one of his old devices that had a tracking system on Zim’s old hiding grounds. Dib used it as a starting point to see if the alien fled in any one of their old battling grounds. Dib ate what he picked out and got to work. 

For the next week, Dib would search each location inch by inch to find some clue or hint of where Zim could be. All the places that the old tracker had let Dib all come out empty. Dib was growing impatient and worried that Zim might have left Earth for good.

Dib didn’t want to think about that and kept reminding himself why he was looking for Zim in the first place… “Find Zim and you find the solution for the serum… Or force Zim to make him one.” Dib thought to himself. Dib kept chanting those thoughts to prevent his inner demons from planting the thoughts about still having feelings for Zim or the fact that the little alien was the only thing keeping himself together…

Dib was persistent, and over the next week Dib was looking everywhere he could in the middle of the city for any signs of Zim or Gir. There was nothing in the city, it was like Zim had just left without a word. Dib’s worries were increasing the longer he couldn’t see Zim. It was even affecting his work causing Dib to be fired from two of his jobs. 

Dib would come home and try to hack the street cameras to see if there were any signs of Zim. Still nothing, Dib couldn’t figure out how Zim could move without a trace. Dib couldn’t look farther past the city since his money was starting to shrink. 

Dib couldn’t sleep some nights thanks to his dreams placing him at arm's reach of Zim. Zim telling Dib to stop trying, to accept the fact that he was over Dib. That he meant nothing to him and his confession only made things worse.

At the end of those dreams, Zim would walk away from Dib and vanish out of sight before Dib would panic himself awake. Dib’s body was covered in sweat, his heart was racing a mile long, and some nights Dib would just cry from all these new emotions that he would feel. 

Dib hated that his subconscious would plague him and now the serum was affecting his daily life and well being. To make matters worse he was contacted by the apartment manager to speak with his father about setting up a type of promotional ad for the apartment building. 

Dib postponed talking with his dad, he couldn’t talk with him especially now with everything going on in his life. He lied to the manager that his father was away on a business meeting and wouldn’t expect calls, emails, etc. Until next week. 

The manager believed him and let Dib be until next week. Dib felt some relief for the time being but knew he only had a week at most to focus on finding Zim. 

Dib was starting to get desperate and started talking with anyone who would listen to him and even made a crude poster to show people what Zim looked like. So far many of the people he asked never heard of Zim or didn’t see him. 

On the fourth day, he was walking down a very dark alleyway to get to his apartment quicker before it would get really late. It was around one in the morning and Dib was exhausted from looking all over the city and asking people about Zim’s whereabouts. 

Dib could hear a few drunk men talking among themselves loudly while walking. 

“God… Like I asked that weird... Green guy for a night out and… He… Just… Cusses me out! Like seriously  **what the fuck** right!? One guy explains to his comrade. 

“Totally dude! He had no right to refuse your request! He wasn’t even that good looking…” The other guy didn’t get to finish his complaint when Dib lunged violently at the guy.

“Tell me right now the guy you are talking about was his name, Zim!?” Dib yelled out at the guy while strangling the guy by his shirt. 

The guy still standing picks up Dib by the collar of his black coat and throws Dib into the wall of a nearby building.

“What the… Fucccck…. Is wrong with you dude! You can’t… Talk to my… Friend like that!” The guy was really furious now. Not only didn’t he get to have his usual fling now this rando came and wanted to fight his friend. 

Dib coughed loudly trying to get some air to breathe. The pain he felt was nothing like the usual fights he would have with Zim. It was still painful and Dib slowly got himself up before the drunkards could do more harm to Dib. 

The guy that Dib jumped tired to stand back up but would fumble here and there while trying to reach for a wall to support himself in his current state. He grumbled out here and therefor not being able to stand up right away. His friend went and helped him pick himself off the ground.

Dib looked like he had a chance to clear things up the two so he could find Zim faster. 

“Guys, I just wanted to know whether the person that you guys were talking about was Zim!? I don’t want to fight either of you.” Dib tried to explain to the two men. 

“You didn’t have to jump me, crazy dude! Are you his lover or something? Like is that why…” The guy fumbled while asking but Dib interrupted him before he could finish his random thoughts. 

“Zim isn’t my lover or anything!” Dib yelled out in frustration. 

“If he ain’t your man… Then why… You are looking… For him yeh..?” The other man chimed in. 

Dib didn’t want to explain to a pair of drunken nobodies but it looked like he didn’t have much of a choice at this point. So he decided to lie about the details. 

“Zim owns me something and ran out on the agreement before I could get what I wanted,” Dib explained to the two. 

Before the men could answer two more people came walking through the alley. Once the two people came into view they were cops. One male and one female police officer. Both eye Dib and the two drunk men. 

The male one spoke first, “Alright what’s going on here?” 

Dib didn’t say anything, Dib didn’t want to get into more trouble than he already was in. The two men started talking to the police officer. 

“Nothing officer, we were just….” One of the guys said. 

“That guy jumped at me, Officer, said he wanted to know someone from the club we go to…” The other guy said before his friend told him to be quiet. 

The two officers turned their attention over to Dib, Dib looked horrible. To them, Dib looked like he didn’t sleep much or did basic hygiene. The male officer thought Dib was some homeless person. The female officer felt a little sad at Dib’s current condition. 

“Sir, may we ask why you jumped this man?” The female officer asked Dib. 

“I only wanted to know where…” Dib stopped himself; he didn’t know what to call Zim. He wasn’t friends with Zim or anything for that matter. They were enemies and that would not help him out of this situation. 

“To find your missing friend right?” The female officer completed Dib’s thoughts. She felt a little bad for Dib since it seemed to her that Dib was lost and not just in his thoughts. 

A bit of relieved sweep over Dib, he only nodded his head to show that the officer was correct. 

The male officer, noticing how drunk the other two were, did his best to convince them to ride with them in their police car. So he questioned the two as to why they were out so late. 

The female officer continued the conversation with Dib, I can see that you didn’t want to harm these men here but… I still have to take you with me so we can get all the facts straight. You understand young man?” 

Dib couldn’t believe what he was hearing, sure he shouldn’t have jumped at the guy but he was desperate to get rid of this new curse that plagued his life now. It didn’t help that whenever he thought of Zim besides trying to find him, it would make his heart hurt. Like his heart was being squeezed from the inside out. It made it hard for Dib to breathe some days. 

Dib looked around briefly to see if there was a way out of this situation. There was a small window for Dib to run for it, but he knew there would be no way for him to make it without ending on the news. 

Or worse if he did get out his face would be plastered all over the news and his dad would be the one to break it to the news and the cops. His father would use this as an excuse for why Dib was wrong and how Dib took a wrong path in life. 

Dib’s body was starting to go into fight or flight mode, his pupils were dilating for fear of losing his only chance to find Zim. His breathing becomes irregular now while Dib did his best to try to get as much air as possible. 

The female officer noticing Dib’s change in behavior slowly approached Dib while talking to Dib. “It’s okay young man I am not arresting you, I just want to ask you more questions about what you are doing out so late with these men.” She said in a calming voice. 

Dib’s inner mind was telling him to run. To run far away so he could find the only person that caused all the events to happen to him in the last weeks. Dib’s breathing was growing more hard the longer he was with the cops. He looked back to find that the other officer was gone and so were the men that he tried to question. 

Dib looked back at the female officer to find her a few feet from him. With Dib’s senses going wild Dib accidentally moves back so the officer wouldn't touch him. 

The female officer seeing Dib move back stops moving closer to Dib. “Sir, if you keep resisting I will have to arrest you for not following basic commands. Is that what you?”

She didn’t like getting rowdy with people if the female officer didn’t have to but Dib wasn’t giving any better options. 

Dib understood what she was saying but his body wasn’t listening to him. His heart started racing thanks to the weird fear that his mind made up to him. Dib’s mind knew that everything was fine, but his body said otherwise.

Dib only did one thing, he clasped onto the floor. The feeling of his body hurt all over not just from the guy throwing him into the wall but his stomach ached from all of the stress of his new life and circumstances. Without a break, Dib’s body was starting to shut down so that it could help his body go back to normal. 

Dib felt tears come out of his face, and he tried to hide it, but the officer came closer thanks to the opportunity that Dib gave her when he fell to the floor.

“Oh my goodness! Are you hurt or in pain!?” She tried to ask Dib but he didn’t respond, only sobbing uncontrollably and trying to find air before passing out on the floor. 

The female officer checked right away to see if Dib was still breathing. Dib’s pulse was faint but still beating. Right away she called her partner back to send for the ambulance to make sure that this strange man would make it through the night. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to those who have read this work and comments are appreciated. I would like to see what people like about this story.


	9. Zim’s Concerns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zim learns crudely about Dib’s condition in the hospital and decides to see for himself what is wrong with the human. Zim learns more things about himself thanks to Dib.

Over the night Dib was watched over by a nurse and doctor. The police officers told the two what they knew before Dib collapsed on the alleyway floor. 

The doctor recognized Dib right away and asked the nurse to phone the famous Professor Membrane to alert him of his son’s condition. 

The nurse wrote out everything the police wanted to ask Dib, she told the police that they would be notified once Dib was in much better shape. With their work ongoing, they left the nurse to her work and left the hospital to resume their shift. 

Dib was hooked up to an IV machine to give Dib much needed nutrients and liquids. Dib had a ventilator to help him get the oxygen his body desperately needed.

The nurse looked over Dib’s results on the monitors; his heart rate and oxygen levels were starting to stabilize. Once the nurse finished collecting all of Dib’s vitals she left and turned off the lights to Dib’s room for the night. 

The next morning, Zim went about his usual day of checking all activity with Gir, Minimoose, and the computer. Zim made sure Gir was well distracted and asked Minimoose to take care of Gir while he was gone doing work. 

The computer updated Zim on all the modifications that were done on the new batch of control serum. Zim didn’t want a random human falling for the alien. It was bad enough that he got the Dib worm falling for him but now he was living a horrible working life because of it. 

This new situation reminded Zim of his days slaving away on Foodcourtia with Sizz-Lorr. Making food, serving people day in and out without breaks, especially during the Great Foodening. This thought made Zim cringe with disgust, Zim shook his head to focus back to reality and work.

The afternoon shift was boring to Zim and he kept getting stuck with other coworkers who would ask Zim too many nosy questions about himself and why he wanted to work at such a place. 

Zim wanted to go apeshit and make them disappear, but Zim knew in his contract that many of his coworkers were valued by the lowly humans who frequented this establishment. That would ruin the business and might alert the Dib human of his whereabouts. Something that Zim didn’t want most of all. 

On his break, Zim’s pak reminded him of Dib. Like how when Keef over the years kept trying to be over-friendly with Zim, Dib was the one to set Keef straight. Keef stopped trying to be friends with Zim around the end of hi shool. Zim never knew right away until he overheard some of Keef’s friends talk about how Dib would bully Keef for always being on Zim’s case. 

Zim didn’t understand why Dib would help him out. With the effects of the serum, it made Dib say that he always loved him. This made Zim’s face flush a slightly dark green making Zim bang his head against the table he was using for his food. 

Zim’s pak was messing with his superior irken brain, again Zim told himself and his pak that it was the serum that made the stupid earth pig start to feel for him. That Dib would never love Zim… 

Zim thinking about that last thought made him sad, but why? Again every time Zim would think of his own negative thoughts about Dib’s emotions, Zim’s emotional response was to feel sad. Zim didn’t understand his emotions all that well. It didn’t help that for an invader he wasn’t trained to read emotions only to suppress them. 

The pak was supposed to help with this, but thanks to Zim being a defect his emotions were all over the place. This led to his battles with Dib or his other classmates over the years. Even adult humans hated dealing with Zim when he got overly emotional. The only beings that could put up with him were Gir, Minimoose, his computer to a point, Keef but Zim didn’t count him since he knew that Keef was a special case. Lastly, there was Dib… 

Dib was always there when Zim was at his lowest, even if it wasn’t the best for Zim. Dib was the reason that kept Zim motivated when at times he felt his defectiveness would manifest into self-hate and self-doubt in his abilities as an invader. 

Zim wanted to erase everything good that would lead to thinking about Dib in a far better light. From what Zim could remember Dib was the most toxic human based on his classmates' opinions. In the beginning, the human classmates wanted to get to know Zim because of how much mistreatment Zim would get from Dib. Over the years the classmates just thought that Zim was just weird and different while Dib was crazy. 

They refused to mistreat Zim but didn’t want to be friends with Zim either. It didn’t help with how obsessive Dib would be about Zim. For the first time in Zim's classmates' life, they saw Dib act this way with one particular person now especially with a foreign student. 

Over the years, however, Dib stopped going overboard like he would in his youth. Zim was still surprised at how Dib could keep up with Zim at his age. Zim didn’t understand human age only knowing how little their life span was. 

Zim’s eternal struggle was cut short by another one of Zim’s coworkers moving into the room to start his break. His name was Raymondo and he worked alongside Zim during the night shift. 

“Zim… Zim!” Raymondo called out to Zim since his shift was to start back up and he didn’t want Zim fired. Raymondo was Zim’s senior but unlike many of the other people, Raymondo trained over the years he never had as much fun as working alongside Zim. 

Sure Zim was crude, loud, and sometimes annoying, but when Zim got to work he finished the job in record time. Not to mention Raymondo felt that Zim was starting to warm up to him. Maybe it was because he didn’t bother Zim too much unless it was something important or to help Zim do better at whatever task he was doing okay at. 

Zim being startled almost fell back on his chair but using his claws grabbed the table before he could fall. “What do you want, human!” Zim yelled at Raymondo for bringing him back to reality so suddenly. 

“The names Raymondo remember Zim? Not human, also, I’m your senior and it’s my job to look after you so you don't make the boss man angry okay? The reason I was calling you was to tell you your next shift started about five minutes ago. I don’t want you fired when you only just started here you know.” Raymondo said to Zim with concern. 

Zim looked over Raymondo with some concern, “Zim never forgets, just that this position that Zim is occupying is only temporary so getting to know your name is unnecessary to Zim. I will get to work human, Zim always gets his work done.” With that Zim leaves Raymondo alone with his thoughts. 

Raymondo didn’t believe Zim’s thought of how not using his or other coworkers' names were unimportant. Raymondo thought that maybe Zim had trouble socializing with people and needed someone to lead on. 

Normally Raymondo wouldn’t care about what other people did on their shift as long as he wouldn’t get into trouble. Zim was a special case, he never met anyone like him, and not just by Zim’s looks either. 

Raymondo decided to help Zim learn to be nicer to people since being a waiter was his job now. Being mean would make the job harder on Zim and on himself with the complaints. With that thought taken care of, he went to grab his dinner before going back to work. 

Zim was on his way getting two beers for two male humans who sat together in a booth. 

“Here are your drinks, hu… Sirs.” Zim almost called them humans. He was given flack for using that term by Raymondo and another less friendly boss he had in the afternoon shift. Zim hated using human gender pronouns, they felt primitive and outdated but humans still used them and he was ordered to call the customers as such unless instructed not to by the customers. 

“Hey! It’s our guy from the other day!” One of the guys loudly explained to his comrade. 

The other man being tipsy tries to focus on Zim’s face. When the guy thought he could see Zim’s face properly he finally answered his friend. 

“Oh My God! You right dude, he’s the green fella who didn’t want to fuck you!” The guy started laughing as he remembered what happened the other day. 

“Shut up man! I just wanted a good time like anyone here!” The guy drunkenly defended himself. 

Zim wanted to throw them out like the bouncers would do to the unruly guests but apparently these two didn’t break any of brothel’s rules so he had to listen to their stupid ramblings. 

“If you humans are done with ordering Zim will leave you alone…” Zim explained calmly while trying his best not to start a fight. 

“Hey, don’t leave us yet!” The first guy shouted out at Zim before Zim left out of ears range. 

Zim stopped and by obligation only he went back to the idiot drunk humans. “What do you want now… Sirs?” 

After having his fun the other guy started first, “he probably wants to talk about that weird guy who was looking for you, right bro!?” 

“Hey, no fair! I wanted to tell him!” The guy told his friend. 

Zim hearing this new information wondered if it was even necessary to listen to them. Zim played along with the humans so he could get out of work faster. 

“Who was looking for me?” Zim asked without real concern. 

“He was a weird guy, had jet black hair with like a saif on top of his head. At least I think that’s the shape of his hair…” The guy described Dib’s features. 

“Yeah and he looked in bad shape too, then he wanted to fight you once you told him about wanting to fuck this guy right!?” His friend added to the conversation. 

Zim listened carefully and when he realized who they were talking about Zim grew tense. Did Dib follow Zim? He was sure that he had not left anything to chance. Was this human saying that the Dib was angry for getting attention from other humans? So many questions came to Zim’s mind that Zim was starting to feel overwhelmed. 

The two noticed the change in Zim’s behavior and decided to tease Zim.

“See dude I knew that guy lied, he was his lover!” The guy explains to his friend. 

“Is that why you rejected me? Because you still hung up on that weird guy?” The other guy asks Zim. 

Zim was furious now, “Zim has no lover you stupid waste pigs! I don’t even know who you are evening talking about! And why would the superior Zim give himself to a toxic filled human like you!?” 

Zim was about to throw the wasted humans out of the brothel when Raymondo came running to stop Zim before he got out of hand. 

“Zim… Is everything okay, are these fine men causing problems..?” Raymondo looked at the two men. 

To the men, Raymondo’s eyes looked like they were glaring at them with red piercing eyes. Like Raymondo was saying you dare not angry him or the strange short man any longer. One of them screamed and grabbed onto his friend. 

The other man spoke out, “we ain’t done nothing Ray man!” 

Raymondo wasn’t having it today, he finally had Zim calm down and not start as many fights as the first week of his employment. Now the same customers who would purposefully hound Zim were causing another scene in the brothel.

“Sirs, I am sorry but you are no longer welcomed at this brothel. You are disturbing the other guests and my fellow coworker. I am asking you to leave now, please.” Raymondo said in the most polite way possible even though his tone said otherwise. 

The two men were silent for a while, then the other guy said, “whatever dude, your place didn’t have enough hotties here anyway. Come on bro we can go to that new club that just opened up on the other side of the city.” 

His comrade still holding onto his friend sluggishly got up to leave with his buddy. “There was the ambulance with that guy you know, the cops said he passed out or something…” 

Zim visibly angry stopped fuming when he heard what the guy said. Zim without mercy grabbed the man to demand the details of his last statement. 

“What do you mean and which hospital!? Tell Zim now or I can’t guarantee that you will continue to live if you don’t answer Zim!” Zim needed to know if what the guy said was true. 

Raymondo didn’t stop Zim, he could see under all the anger that Zim looked now almost fearful of the guy’s answer. He watched carefully to see what Zim would do. 

“I don’t remember the name, only it’s the one close by from here. Like it was a fifteen-minute drive. I swear I don’t remember anything else!” The guy said fearfully while being choked by Zim’s tight grip on his t-shirt. 

The other guy didn’t take kindly to this ugly short man hurting his friend and was about to throw down with Zim. Raymondo right away called the bouncers to help Zim not get beat up by this now unwanted guest. 

When the guy noticed the bouncers between him and his friend he froze in place. Zim let go of the guy and jumped at the other guy and kicked him square in the stomach. Causing the bouncers to move and collect the now dizzy drunk man. 

Raymondo moved alongside Zim to better communicate with him, he tapped on Zim’s shoulder. “Zim!” 

Zim turned his head and noticed it was the human or Raymondo as he wanted to be called. Zim thought for sure now he would be fired from his job. 

Raymondo could see how troubled Zim must have felt from all this mess. “Zim I am not going to fire you or have you fired okay. I know those two and they were at the time just annoying but since you showed up they got more rowdy than usual. I’m so sorry you were dealing with that.” Was all that Raymondo said and gave Zim a pat on the shoulder telling him in his way that everything will work out. 

Zim felt the human reassured him that he was in the right and that he could continue to work at the brothel. Zim never got such a response before, it felt so foreign to him. Zim was always used to rejection at the slightest mistakes if he had made them. 

Raymondo noticing how confused Zim looked tried to talk to Zim again, “those guys said that someone you might know is in the hospital, even if they are drunk that’s a sick joke. Zim if you feel the need to leave your shift early I can cover for you to make sure those guys were lying about whoever that person might be…” Raymondo explained to Zim. 

Zim listening was now so surprised at how (Zim had to look up in his pak for the word) considerate and caring to him when Zim for the last two weeks made his work hell. 

“Zim… needs to leave… to see if the humans were just messing with me…” Zim explained with an exhausted tone. 

“Of course, I understand Zim, if you come back just text me, here is my number Zim. I just want to get along with you for however long you want to stay here. We need to stick together when some of our coworkers or guests are a bunch of ass hats haha..” Raymondo tried to lighten the mood from earlier. 

Zim only nodded back at the human and took the card that Raymondo gave him. Zim quickly moved along the rows of tables and people and headed out the door of the brothel to see what all the fuss was about Dib if it even was the Dib human at all. 

Dib hadn’t woken up yet, he was still sleeping. The nurse had just finished looking over Dib and made sure he wasn’t too hot or cold. His vitals were almost back to normal but she could tell that Dib didn’t pace himself and left himself get completely exhausted to the point he could have died. 

The nurse lastly made sure that Dib’s breathing was fine, the heart monitor showed an even level of heartbeats. All seemed good, with that last step out of the way the nurse wrote down on Dib’s notes to check back on him in thirty minutes. 

In the corner of the room, the nurse didn’t notice the small figure looming over from the ceiling. She closed the door and walked away to see her next patient. 

Zim waited carefully until the human female’s footsteps were out of range. Once the footsteps were gone Zim used his pak legs to climb down to get a better look at Dib.

It was true… It was all true what the disgusting human males said… Dib was in this building trying to recover from whatever he was doing… He was looking for… Zim…

Zim wasn’t really surprised about the human’s tenacity for going for whatever kept the human interested. Mainly himself… This was the first time he had ever seen the human do something like this. “Was it the serum’s fault..? Or was it true that the human really did love…” Zim didn’t want to know not now. 

“Pak check to see if any human came to see the stink head Dib human?” Zim whispered his command to the pak. 

“Negative, only the medical team in this hospital has come to see the human.” The pak wrote out on Zim’s metal communicator. 

Zim was a little surprised since he knew Dib's relationship with his parental unit wasn’t all that great. The younger human called Gaz as Dib called his sister was to Zim another creature altogether and questioned if the female human was human. Either way when Zim last talked with Dib’s “father” Zim was able to at least get the two humans to talk more with each other. 

Zim understood the feeling of being left alone because when you were, defective… 

Zim shook out the thought before he felt depressed, he moved closer to see the different machines displaying Dib’s condition. 

Zim never saw the human sleep like this before, sure the other time it looked like a peaceful sleep. One in which Zim could take advantage of since sleep wasn’t required for ikrens any more thanks to their paks. This time however Dib didn’t move in his sleep only breathing in and out. 

Without thinking, Zim moved closer to touch the human’s head with his gloved right claw. Dib’s hair was rough around the saif and soft when Zim lowered his claw to the base of Dib’s massive head. Zim looked at Dib’s face with some hint of care. 

Upon realizing his actions, Zim quickly withdrew his claw away from the human. Zim looked at his claw then back at Dib, “what is wrong with me!?” Zim yelled to himself in his head. 

Zim wrote out another command to his pak, “pak scan your master to learn what emotion Zim is currently doing?” 

Using Zim’s metal communicator the pak beamed out a small blue light and moved around Zim’s body. After scanning Zim the pak was calculating the current emotion Zim was displaying. 

The pak spelled out the results in bright yellow letters, “worrying or concern.” 

Zim didn’t understand those human words, he had his pak look them up. When Zim downloaded all known human knowledge on the emotions he was horrified by what he had learned. 

“Zim doesn't care about his enemy..! His…” Zim was angry at himself for feeling any sympathy for the human and now he felt the need to say in a possessive manner that this human was now his… 

Zim was reminded about his thoughts from his break at work, “no not now” Zim told himself. Zim didn’t want to tackle the underlying fear he had within himself. What the tallest would say to Zim over and over with each call he would make to them. That he was and always will be a…  **Defect** … 

Zim looked back at Dib, he realized then that it was true, without the human he didn’t feel like a true invader. And it had been years and not months like many of his other irken invaders who had already conquered their planets.

Zim wanted to stop thinking… He wanted to feel like the old days when it was always exciting and Dib would be the only worthy challenger... No arch enemy that Zim could ever ask for… And he wasn’t thinking that there was anything wrong with him… 

Zim decided that he would help the human out for now. He wanted these feelings gone, he wanted to invade again, to plan out ideas, to finally prove to his tallest once and for all that he was an invader and an asset to the irken empire.

Using his pak he scanned the liquids that the medical staff gave Dib. Looking at all the components of each Zim noted how primitive everything was. No wonder it would take some humans days to recover from simple injuries. 

Zim quietly contacted the computer to make a quick recovery solution. The computer wondered if Zim was alright, but not in a concerning manner. 

Zim told the computer everything that he could see with the human. The computer upon hearing Zim’s descriptions about Dib the computer laughed out loud.

“Computer, shut up! Whatever is wrong with you, Zim is being serious here!” Zim quietly yelled at the machine. 

“So do you care for the human, Gir made a bet with Minimoose saying that you and that human got along despite all the fighting and such. I thought the opposite and now I have to give Gir… Gir time to play with the lab…” The computer explained then stopped laughing once he realized what he would have to do with Gir. 

“You stupid hunk of junk! You will not let Gir near anything in Zim’s laboratory until the mess with the serum is over. And I don’t like the stupid pig, Dib! Got that!” Zim defended himself for his new actions. 

“Whatever you say, master…” The computer said to Zim while working on the solution.

Zim didn’t like the human, it was the serum’s fault for Zim’s change with the human. Zim just wanted his new life over. To go back to… How he would make small plans… The human would foil them… Zim realized again how repetitive his old schemes got now… His motivation to take over the earth was still there but… Now with everything new happening Zim wasn’t sure if things would be the same again… 

Zim’s thoughts were cut short with the computer transporting the solution to Zim’s pak. 

Zim took out the solution and closed the communicator to the computer. Zim right away carefully removed Dib’s current liquids with his superior irken medicine. The color was pink and glowed in the dark. 

Zim right away fixed the door to remain locked until the solution would take effect. Zim also hooked up monitors around the ceiling to check on the human’s progress. After everything was set up Zim was ready to go back to his base for the night. 

Zim looked over at Dib one last time, irk! Zim hated that he was starting to not mind the human’s looks. 

Zim remembered that his parental unit or sibling wasn’t made aware or didn’t care about Dib’s current condition. He would send a message to Dib’s father to see if that might help Dib to not feel alone when the human would wake up. 

Zim still didn’t want Dib to know where he lived and worked. So he wrote out on a piece of paper to let Dib know what he did and to not make himself sick again for trying to stop the all-powerful Zim. 

Zim couldn’t physically talk to Dib right now, not with all these new emotions starting to form. 

Zim finished his letter and placed it on the table next to Dib and used his pak legs to climb up into the ceiling and back to his base. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to those who continue to read this work. Comments are always appreciated.

**Author's Note:**

> Not gonna lie, I'm not good at ending chapters as you will see after this chapter XD  
Also, thank you if you made it to the end of this chapter. I promise it will get to the spicy bits soon. I originally wanted to make this into a one-shot, but my brain was like no make it a chapter fic and here we are.


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